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James Buchanan Elementary: 1961

As long as we are sharing school photos, this was my first grade class at James Buchanan Elementary in Levittown, Pennsylvania. Our teacher was. Mrs Alice Stutzman. The date is May 1961 but that is not our classroom. We were in room 5. They set the chairs and camera up in room 1 and every class took their turn going there and posing. I am the girl in green with my head tilted. View full size.

Started first grade at Buchanan in 1965 and we did wear skirts or dresses every day - Very impractical on cold winter days and on the playground. I was in sixth grade before the dress code changed and girls were allowed to wear pants!

Back in those days, girls were required to wear dresses to school. And there were no shorts and t-shirts for boys, just button downs and long pants. There is a reason I always remember my mother ironing when I was young! I didn't start first grade until 1964, but we were still wearing Mary Janes and white ankle socks then, just was we see in this picture. We changed from school clothes to play clothes when we got home. Play clothes were usually ripped and dirty and often didn't fit. No one would dream of ironing those.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo archive featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1960s. (Available as fine-art prints from the Shorpy Archive.) The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.